Wednesday, November 11, 2009

America's free and prosperous Muslim population remains our most effective deterrent against Islamic terrorism. Al-Qaeda can recruit among the angry and desperately poor Muslims of Spain, or it can incite violence against the hijab-banning French, but it has difficulty convincing comfortably middle-class small-business owners to declare jihad on America. It's important that the United States avoid the pitfalls of Europe and not alienate or restrict its Muslim population. To do so would more than just risk our greatest anti-terrorism weapon; it would threaten to incite the very violence we seek to quell.